Waking Up
by Neko Riri
Summary: After Roxas disappears, nothing in Twilight Town is the same anymore. But Pence, Olette, and Hayner have to move on eventually, right? Pence x Olette


Twilight Town had never been the same since that summer, and nobody knew why. Everything appeared to be the same on the outside, but they all knew that it was different, that something was missing.

Olette sat in the Usual Spot, thinking about all of this. Her heart ached to go back to that summer, but she couldn't even remember anything particularly special about it. What had they even done? They had put off their summer homework until the last minute, she remembered that. But that wasn't out of the ordinary, since Olette suspected she was the only one out of the three of them that actually cared about getting good grades.

As her thoughts turned to her friends, Olette sighed. She knew that hadn't always been like this, but she could barely remember a time when they weren't. She wanted Hayner to laugh again, like he used to. He didn't even smile now. He was always spacing out, with a distant and depressed look in his eyes. And Pence had changed too, even if it wasn't as drastic. Had she changed? Olette wondered about this. She was more introverted than she used to be, that was for sure. She missed talking to people regularly, instead of forcing herself to be alone with her thoughts.

As she tried to analyze all of this like it was some sort of logic puzzle, another figure entered the Usual Spot. Pence, she suspected. Hayner never came in here anymore. It was just too much for him.

"Hey, Pence," Olette said to him without much enthusiasm. It was hard for her to feel enthusiastic about anything anymore, she realized. It just took too much effort to be happy.

"Olette!" Pence smiled at the brown-haired girl and walked up to her. At first, Olette thought his forced cheerfulness was a little pathetic, but it later hit her that it was… Cute, in a way. She smiled back at him, as he sat down next to her.

"Look, Olette! Look what I brought! It's 'specially for you!" Pence was practically jumping up and down with excitement now. Olette was starting to wonder if this really WAS an act. He looked… Genuinely happy, for the first time in a long, long while.

Olette giggled, and shocked herself in doing so. It had been ages since she'd giggled. She'd almost forgot how it felt. "What, Pence?"

Pence laughed and brought a hand out from behind his back and handed Olette something cold and drippy. "Look Olette! Remember these?" He smiled at her again.

"Sea Salt… Ice cream…." Olette brought the blue popsicle up to her mouth and licked it. Tears formed behind her eyes as she tasted it, and she didn't even know why. "It's salty… But sweet…" The taste reminded her of that summer, when things were better. But at the same time, she felt something different than sadness. Something more like… Hope. "Thank you, Pence…" She smiled at him. A real smile.

"You're welcome, Olette." He leaned over and kissed her cheek, and then got up from where he was sitting. "Try to cheer up, okay?" He backed out of the Usual Spot slowly, giving her one last smile before he disappeared.

Olette blushed as she lightly touched the place where he had kissed her. And all of a sudden, she knew. She knew she could bring herself to move on. She had a working pair of legs, and it was time to get up and use them. Because, after all, life was a little like Sea Salt ice cream. Salty, yet sweet at the same time.

Olette got up, and walked out of the Usual Spot. She needed to talk to Hayner, and she knew he would listen. That was what friends did, after all. She would give him her shoulder to cry on, if that would help him smile again. Not literally, of course, she thought, laughing to herself. Because tough guys like Hayner never cried.

But either way, things were going to change. Olette could feel it. Whatever it was that was missing from their hearts could be filled in with something else. They couldn't live in the darkness forever. The sun would have to rise eventually, and Olette decided that she had to do everything in her power to help it. She owed it to her to her town, to Hayner, and to Pence.

As she ran down the road, she found her self laughing hysterically. At what, she had no idea. But it felt so good to finally laugh out loud. She didn't care if random passers-by thought she was insane. It was worth it just to be happy again.

-- Fin.

Yes, I made a reference to FMA. Shut up.


End file.
